criminy
/ˈkɹaɪ.mɪ.ni/
"criminy" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“criminy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Expressing surprise or impatience.
Corpus desk
Index EN-criminy · criminy · English
criminy · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | criminy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˈkɹaɪ.mɪ.ni/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “criminy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
criminy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection, transcribed /ˈkɹaɪ.mɪ.ni/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Expressing surprise or impatience.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for criminy in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Either from Italian crimine (“crime”), or a minced oath from "Christ's money" (in reference to the silver that Judas was paid for betraying Jesus), or a deformation of Gemini (which was recorded as an oath from the 1660s). First attested in the 1680s. The correct English form is criminy, spelled C-R-I-M-I-N-Y.
Definition
- 1Expressing surprise or impatience.
Etymology
Either from Italian crimine (“crime”), or a minced oath from "Christ's money" (in reference to the silver that Judas was paid for betraying Jesus), or a deformation of Gemini (which was recorded as an oath from the 1660s). First attested in the 1680s.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.